The United States' massive appetite for drugs is fueling the rampant violence in Mexico, and the situation won't change until drugs are legalized, former Mexican President Vicente Fox said Wednesday night during a talk at the University of Colorado.

"We have these powerful drug cartels because they get billions of dollars here that they use to bribe Mexican officials and buy guns here that they bring to Mexico," he said. "I'm promoting legalization because we don't deserve the price we are paying for combating the drug trade for the United States."

Fox, who was the first Mexican president to come from outside the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party in more than 70 years, was invited to CU by the Distinguished Speakers Bureau.

Fox was president of Coca-Cola Latin America before entering politics. He joined the center-right National Action Party and served as governor of the Mexican state of Guanajuato before being elected president in 2000.

Fox said Mexico has made tremendous economic progress over the last 10 years, including seeing 6 percent annual growth in its economy and bringing millions of families into the middle class.

Mexico should be included among the emerging economies of China, India, Russia and Brazil and has sound economic fundamentals, he said.

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He stressed the close economic relationship between the United States and Mexico -- with Mexico providing 70 percent of all vegetables consumed in the U.S. and importing more products from the U.S. than Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy combined.

He said the two countries and Canada need to work together to reinvigorate the North American Free Trade Agreement to better compete with China and other Asian economies, but the political environment in the U.S. needs to change.

"Instead of building bridges, we're building walls," Fox said. "We have to make sure that this relationship between both of our nations is fruitful. I am convinced that if we work together with vision and we reinvent NAFTA, that we can ensure this is the part of the world that will be leading in the future."

Mexico has an "obligation" to create more opportunities for its citizens, Fox said, and addressing poverty is essential to securing democracy in Mexico and the rest of Latin America.

However, Mexican migrants also make vital contributions to the U.S. economy, he said.

"The migrants are a special caste," he said in remarks to reporters before his speech. "They have the will and the drive to do something better for their families, but they also do a lot for this country. In Washington state, who else will pick the apples? In California, who else will pick the vegetables? Many, many families and businesses have hired migrants. They work in construction. They nurse the elderly."

Fox called on the U.S. Congress to pass immigration reform that provides a path to legalization for illegal immigrants who have been working in the U.S. and otherwise following the law.

He acknowledged that the security situation in Mexico has deteriorated since President Felipe Calderon launched a war on the drug cartels in 2006. Officials estimate that more than 30,000 people have died in the ensuing violence.

"I know today everybody is asking, 'What is going on in Mexico?" he said. " 'Why are they killing each other?' 'What's wrong with them?' "

Fox noted that drug consumption is much lower in Mexico than in the U.S. and that California alone produces more marijuana than all of Mexico.

However, Mexico is stuck between U.S. consumers and the drug-producing nations of South America. If drugs were legalized, the money that now goes to the cartels could instead go toward education and treatment, he said.

Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico, poses for a photo with University of Colorado student Esteban Hernandez before speaking at CU's Macky Auditorium on Wednesday night.
(
MARTY CAIVANO
)

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